Florida with my 2110 girls

My best friends from college and I have always talked about doing an annual trip out to Florida and this year it finally happened! We have all been close friends since freshman/sophomore year in college and were bridesmaids in each other's weddings. It has been 7 months since we've all been together, but now that we all live in different cities, it's a lot harder to meet up. Pauline lives in Chicago, Christal in Minneapolis, and Amanda in Ann Arbor, Michigan. After this trip, we have definitely agreed that we will make Florida an annual thing...especially around the winter when we're all having to deal with snow (or rain in my case!). Below are some pics of our wonderful and relaxing trip (not in chronological order) to West Palm Beach, Florida.

Here we are posing on our way to a block party that Vince Neil invited us to. So there's actually a little story to this - we went to the famous Breakers Hotel to grab drinks/appetizers. Pauline recognized a familiar face in the corner of the bar but couldn't place what band he was with. She texted a friend and he texted back with Vince Neil (the lead singer of Motley Crue). I googled him on my iPhone and got to actually compare a side by side picture of him (from a distance). We agreed that it was him and went up to him and asked for his autograph. What an awesome guy - just really nice and chill (and didn't complain that we interrupted his lunch!). He told us about his block party that he was throwing that evening at his club, Dr. Feelgoods. And so here we are in this pic...on our way to the party :)
We all took a walk to the beach to get our exercise in. It was windy, the waves were huge, and they put a flag up indicating that jellyfish and man-o-war were predominant in the waters...so we decided against hopping in the ocean. But at least we enjoyed the sunshine!
Every night, we hung out at the Blue Martini and enjoyed our free martinis (thanks for the VIP cards!). And the food there was phenomenal. Yum!
This is why this post is out of chronological order (I didn't want to have to re-upload the pics). Here's a pic of Vince Neil up close during his block party. It was awesome rocking out to Motley Crue songs and some of his new stuff! Not someone I would ever go and choose to see live...but if it's free, I'm not going to complain!
Ending this post with a relaxing pic. We stayed at Christal's parent's condo. This is the view from their condo of the pool...just relaxes you looking at it eh? I'm looking forward to our future trips to Florida!

Portland's Annual Snow Storm

Believe it or not, but it only snows once a year in Portland. But when it does, it really dumps. We get a lot of warm fronts off the Pacific which keeps it between 35-50 and rainy all winter. However, when the conditions are just right, all that rain turns to snow. This year, the snowstorm hit very unexpectedly and everyone got out of work early. Despite that, it still took Emily 4.5 hours to drive 25 miles home from work. Since the snow is rare here, the city is not equipped with snow plows and the locals have no clue how to drive in the slick stuff.

Emily amidst the blizzard on the roof balcony at work

The Christmas tree at Pioneer Square (downtown Portland)

Our house covered in snow. The 4Runner earned its keep....and was a lot of fun playing around in the snow....I guess I get this from my Dad. I remember as a kid, he was always looking for an excuse to take his Chevy Blazer out when the snow hit hard in Ohio. I, ahem, "toured" a few (many) parking lots on my way home that day. :)

Now that it's winter, we have made several trips up to Mt Hood for snowboarding. Unfortunately, the weather has been real fickle up there - some days are great powder, while other days are pouring rain. Here are some pics from the good days:

the wall of snow on the side of the road to Mt Hood shows how much snow they have been getting...with the peak of Mt Hood glistening in the sun

Em taking a break from riding to soak up the sun and the view

the view from atop Meadows Resort - we are high enough to be ABOVE the clouds....it may be gloomy in Portland, but it is sunny up here!!

view of Mt Jefferson peaking through the clouds on the horizon

Just as quickly as the snow came, the snow melted during the normal Portland rain the next day. Our standard 45 degree and rainy weather returned and life in Portland went back to normal. We even got a few 50 degree days, so we did some local hikes on the weekends.

a new tree growing out of a stump

a hike in Forest Park includes seeing some amazing houses perched on the cliffs

We had a clear sunny weekend this weekend so we finally took our inaugural ride on the Aerial Tram in the South Waterfront district. The Tram is part of the public transportation system and connects the South Waterfront district to the Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU).

the view of downtown Portland from the Aerial Tram

We had a slight delay in our excursions around the city because the draw bridge was raising to let a ship pass through:

Today we had another day of nice weather, so we did some short hikes at the nearby Tualatin Hills Nature Center (about a 5 min drive from our house). The trails were a little soggy, but it was still nice to get a nice walk in the woods. We almost stumbled over this little fellow.....then he went hopping on his way....

Last of our Christmas posts

Though we ended up staying in Portland over Christmas, we had plenty to do! Some of our friends were around for the holidays as well (since a lot of them are from the Midwest too), so we all hosted get-togethers and dinners so that something was always going on. The first party we attended was Courtney and Charlie's annual holiday party. They always have a White Elephant gift exchange, so that's always fun to be a part of. After the White Elephant, Charlie pulled out a little black box that was hidden on the fireplace and proposed to Courtney in front of all of us. What a great event to be a part of! So I nudged Brad to grab his iPhone quickly and grab a picture to help capture the moment. I guess it's about time since they've been dating for 6 years...


On Christmas Day, we hosted a dinner at our place. Actually, I forgot to mention...Christmas Eve we went over to the Maya house (the family in the back) for an amazing dinner of duck, beef tenderloin, and noodles. It was yummy!
Part of the spread for our Christmas dinner. Kristina is digging in to her vegetarian lasagna while Matt is grabbing a slice of our spiral sliced ham.
Some of the group chilling around the fireplace
Here's the group again - we whipped out the Wii and got some bowling and tennis in. The kids loved playing it and were giving out hi-fives to the bowlers who bowled strikes and spares :)